The Minority Caucus in Parliament has condemned the government’s decision to suspend the Chief Executive Officer of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), describing the move as reactionary, short-sighted, and a failure to confront the structural roots of the hospital’s chronic bed shortage crisis.
In a statement issued on Sunday, June 7, 2026, and signed by the Ranking Member on Parliament’s Health Committee, Dr. Nana Ayew Afriye, the Minority said the suspension would neither create additional beds nor fix a broken referral system.
The caucus argued that the pressure on KATH is not primarily a leadership problem but the result of years of delayed and abandoned health infrastructure projects.
“The persistent ‘No Bed Syndrome’ is not fundamentally a leadership problem at KATH. It is a capacity problem. It is an infrastructure problem. It is a referral system problem. It is a health workforce and resource allocation problem,” the statement read.
The statement pointed out that the previous administration had made significant investments to ease the burden on KATH, including operationalising the 500-bed Afari Military Hospital and substantially completing the 250-bed Ashanti Regional Hospital at Sewua.
They questioned why the government had not prioritised the full operationalisation of these facilities instead of suspending a hospital CEO.
The statement also drew particular attention to two 100-bed hospitals commissioned in 2024 with accident and emergency services, surgical theatres, maternity wards, and diagnostic facilities to absorb demand from KATH, the Trede District Hospital and the Kokoben-Oforikrom District Hospital. Unfortunately, both facilities remain largely non-operational.
“It is therefore difficult to understand how Government can justify suspending the CEO of KATH for challenges arising from excess demand when two fully completed 100-bed hospitals, specifically built to absorb part of that demand, remain unable to provide the services for which they were constructed,” the statement said.
The Minority further issued five specific demands to government:
- The immediate revocation of the KATH CEO’s suspension pending the outcome of any independent investigation.
- The immediate operationalisation of all completed health facilities intended to ease pressure on KATH, particularly the 300-bed Ashanti Regional Hospital at Sewua and the 100-bed Agenda 111 hospitals at Trede and Kokoben-Oforikrom.
- Concrete action on concerns raised by the Ghana Medical Association regarding structural causes of the no-bed crisis, including workforce shortages and referral bottlenecks.
- A shift away from what the Minority described as a “Rambo-style” approach to leadership in the health sector, urging the Health Minister to adopt a more consultative and professional stance.
- Accelerated completion of all stalled hospital projects across the country.
